Frankazoid

Yo B, did you get my pm about lake mcmurray area?

Mostly granitic, but it has some sandstone and basalt characteristics. Some granite-knobs too. It does have some cool cracks.

Seen this?

This isn't 1972, nor did it take place at the JC Penny makeup dept. Customers, like others have said, are not always right. Climbing shops should be above, or different from the status quo of a normal retail enviroment, because of what the products used for. Thanks for being a stand up shop, Featherd Friends and Staff. If you want to buy pins without somebody giving a shit what they are used for, or without the help of knowledgable staff then buy 'em across the street at REI.

The flu diet is a sure way to go. Works every time. Last year- Thailand- Flu- 12 lbs in 2 weeks.

Are you familiar with the “French free” technique to get up the bolt ladder? It is about 30x faster than using aiders and won’t hold up any parties below you. You basically rack your quickdraws on your harness as if you were going to “sport” climb up the bold ladder, but instead you clip the bolt and grab the draw on the dogbone (webbing between the biners) and yard up and clip the next bolt. In between bolts for those big reaches, you step on the bolts like a ladder. You can clip every third or fourth bolt if you want, for protection, or clip every single one if you are scared. You can rest on any of the bolts by clipping the draw into your belay loop once you have yarded up to it. Easy. And best of all you don’t need to bring any extra gear than you have already brought for the Grand. The bolt ladder above the sword should take no more than two minutes to complete if done in this fashion. Ya, Dude. why don't you speed it up, Buddy. pffft. Did'nt you know your climbing the slow way? Geez.

Nice Sol. Look foward to seeing more of your blog.

All I gotta say is don't under estimate the seriousness of Washingtons Cascades. Get warmed up on something else. It doesnt sound like you quite understand what your in for. I hope your not planning on gaining your skill set for this from your rock gym in NYC. I'd like to hear a good TR later rather than some new story of a guy from NYC having mountain mishapps. Be safe and make the smart decision whatever you do. oh and have fun.

Im 5'7 and 174 lbs, And I feel like I need to at about 162-164 for my best performance. Not a fan of running, but I have started jump ropeing and am climbing regulary. Climbing performance has gone up (considerably) but the weight has stayed the same since I havent changed my diet. My first goal is diet change (which im doing nothing to acheive, right now). Second goal is to get to 165 lbs by march sometime. GOAL: shed 9 lbs by anytime in March!

How low can you go? http://colinhaley.blogspot.com/2011/01/cerro-torre-david-lama-and-redbull.html

Short notice I know- looking for a little si partner for tomorrow. Preferably world wall 2. If you've never been you'll be in for a treat! If your just into ww1 that'll be fine also! -Frank

Real sweet hike, dude. pffftt.... Just kidding!! Iv'e noticed your getting out alot. F'n rad. I think a good trip report is anything that reports Fun. or major epics too. those are good reading.

if you are opposed to bolted routes why are you also upset that bolting is being regulated in certain areas? It seems the idea of bolting even being regulated is still absurd to him. Disgusted with the fact that it didn't get thrown out all together. Boo f'n hooo... The funny thing about this is, that, I don't think many people are as passionate about this topic one way or the other once they go outside and get off the computer. Toot.

This is what I would call "dumbing down a climb". People should be relativley happy until we have more of this going on...

Nice. I like when the good summer TR's with photos get saved for winter reading. This should be normal procedure.

Dude, seriously? Your a grumpy ol' wanker. I can picture the walls of your room- covered in posters of modern sport pro's sending hard routes on fixed draws, with dart holes and targets painted on the faces. Holes in the wall. Dark red lighting- aside from the bright glow of your CC.com homepage. errrrr.... "you're taking chances anytime you clip someone else's stuff or jug their fixed lines. Your choice!" - Exactly Raindawg. So you don't have to climb here, since you can choose!

Did you install those cable-draws with the clear green tubing over the wire? I had noticed that those were becoming quite popular... Just curious. Thanks for hooking up new hardware

Larry, Go to the bottom of the linked page for equilization info.. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anchor_(climbing)

In the vertical setup like the picture, all of the forces on the bolts go directly down (what you want). The further apart you have the bolts the V shape increases/ gets wider and so do the >inward< forces on those bolts. Inward forces on 2 opposing bolts is not ideal, or good, as it puts more load on each bolt the wider the angle gets. straight down is good. If you were to pick up a large 100lb stone by keeping your upper body in vertical alignment and squatting the task would be as easy as it gets. Then think of how much of that 100lbs you would feel if you leaned foward ever so slightly while picking it up. Is that a shitty analogy or what?

Wow that thing is sexy!

The TR's are great. Good info- thanks yall.

Thanks OlyMtnBoy- thats good to know. Pretty stoked to get up there in a few months... Would love to spend a few days up there in that area... I drool over it every time I stare up at it from the icicle.

Nice. I like that. Thanks, Sol.

also: Whats the reccomended approach for the mole? does anybody still slog up rat creek, or is that just asking for a bad trip?

So this coming summer i'd like to climb the mole, b-team buttress and a few other things up there... How does the permit thing work? I heard you have to request dates or some shit? Do you wait for them to tell you when you can go? And if you can't make it for that specific date (when it comes time) your screwed? Who plans and lives like that? Iv'e heard mixed things, and I would love to hear more simplistic and straight foward. My climbing is always random and unplanned for the most part. So the idea of planning a date for climbing seems borderline psychotic/ unheard of/ just nuts to me. And the quite honestly i have a hard time keeping a date for anything! Any way to have freedom and creativity with your trip up there?